1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an automated control system for a remote vehicle and, more particularly, to such a control system which allows for specific operations to be manually overridden, as desired.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous attempts have been made heretofore to automate the operations of remote vehicles or to control the operation of vehicles automatically for the convenience of their human operators or for reasons of increased safety. The patent literature provides numerous examples of know appliances of this nature. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,864 to Winner et al. discloses a system wherein automatic speed control of a vehicle is provided, along with the spacing of the vehicle from a preceding vehicle. The control system may be overridden for a limited time so that a driver may accelerate to pass another vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,274 to Good et al. discloses an automatic parallel parking system for a vehicle wherein scanners provide vehicle position information to a microprocessor which controls the steering while the driver controls vehicle speed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,202 to Minovitch relates to an automated road transportation system wherein the individual vehicles are provided with both manual controls and an automatic guidance system which causes the vehicle to follow a guide rail embedded in the roadway. A steering wheel torque sensor is connected so that a torque applied to the steering wheel by an occupant will place control of the vehicle under manual control. The guidance system uses signals from various sensors to control steering and speed and a passenger may designate a destination which the guidance system will then use in selecting routes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,417 to Ziems relates to an automatic steering system for a farm vehicle wherein the vehicle may be automatically steered in response to sensed data and wherein the automatic steering is disengaged by a steering input applied to the manual steering wheel by a human driver.
The following U.S. patents disclose various mechanisms for automatic control of a motor vehicle:
Pat. No. Inventor(s) Issued 5,369,591 Broxmeyer 11/29/94 5,318,143 Parker et al. 06/07/94 5,299,130 Ono 03/29/94 4,931,930 Shyu et al. 06/05/90 2,138,426 Nelson 11/29/38.
It was with knowledge of the foregoing state of the technology that the present invention has been conceived and is now reduced to practice.